NightTalk withAubrey Masango

Senior Researcher at Africa Check Kate Wilkinson says a lot of people asked them to do a fact-finding investigation on a billboard that was put up by the DA.

A lot of people got in touch with us and asked us to look at the claim... When you see a claim that says four children die in South Africa because of hunger you kind of pause and says it can't be that bad. I think that's the reason why people got in touch with us.

— Kate Wilkinson, Senior Researcher at Africa Check

Wilkinson says they contacted the DA and asked what the claim is based on and they pointed to a Parliamentary report presented by the Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi.

Motsoaledi's report provided a provincial break down in which children under five have been admitted to hospitals with severe malnutrition.

The DA said when they speak of children they talk about people under five years, and the hunger they were referring to is severe malnutrition.

— Kate Wilkinson, Senior Researcher at Africa Check

And experts told us that strictly speaking hunger and malnutrition are two different things ... they said that using malnutrition it is not bad proxy for hunger and it is something people can easily understand.